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The name Lailah is the same as the Hebrew word for "night" laylahלילה. The identification of the word "night" as the name of an angel originates with the interpretation of "Rabbi Yochanan" (possibly Yochanan ben Zakkai c. 30 - 90 CE) who read "At night [Abraham] and his servants deployed against them and defeated them” (JPS Genesis 14.14) as "by [an angel called] night" (Sanhedrin 96a).

In the Babylonian Talmud: Sanhedrin 96a the phrase "And he [Abraham] fought against them, he and his servants, "by night" [Hebrew lailah] and smote them." is interpreted by Rabbi Johanan who said "The angel who was appointed to Abraham was named lailah [Night]." Rabbi Isaac the smith also related either God "He", or an angel "he", to the stars fighting against Sisera.

"If I go [to battle] and am successful, I will sacrifice my two sons to thee', he vowed. But his sons heard this, so they killed him, as it is written, And it came to pass, as he was worshipping in the house of Nisroch his god, that Adrammelech and Sharezer his sons smote him with the sword etc.6 And he fought against them, he and his servants, by night [lailah] and smote them.

R. Johanan said: The angel who was appointed to [aid] Abraham was named lailah [Night].

as it is written, [Let the day perish wherein I was born], and the Lailah which said, There is a man child conceived.

R. Isaac, the smith, said: He [the angel] set into motion the activities of the night [viz.. the stars] on his behalf, as it is written, They fought from heaven; the stars in their courses fought against Sisera." Sanhedrian 96, Soncino Talmud

Also in the Talmud, the interpretation is found of rabbi Hanina ben Pappa (3rd century AD), that Lailah is an angel in charge of conception who takes a drop of semen and places it before God, saying:

For R. Hanina b. Papa made the following exposition: The name of the angel who is in charge of conception is 'Night', and he takes up a drop and places it in the presence of the Holy One, blessed be He, saying, 'Sovereign of the universe, what shall be the fate of this drop? Shall it produce a strong man or a weak man, a wise man or a fool, a rich man or a poor man?' (Niddah 16b[5]).

Lailah chooses a soul from the Garden of Eden and commands it to enter the embryo. Lailah watches over the development in the womb and shows the rewards and punishments available to the individual. Then right before birth, Lailah strikes the newborn above the lip, making it forget what was learned and creating the philtrum. Lailah serves as a guardian angel throughout a person's life and at death, leads the soul into the afterlife.[6]

The word "night" appears hundreds of times in the Hebrew Bible and continues to be the subject of rabbinic discussion. The noun layla is a feminine noun in Hebrew, although grammatical gender does not indicate actual gender in Hebrew. Nevertheless, according to Elijah Ben Solomon, the "Vilna Gaon" (1720–1797), Talmudist, halachist, and kabbalist, the Hebrew noun laylah (night) is feminine in its very essence, but has the unusual quality of dualism that combines the feminine with masculine character.[11] In the Zohar, comparison is made between leyl (masculine noun) and layla (feminine noun) "night" is used in reference to the Exodus "to indicate the union which took place on that night between the Masculine and Feminine aspects in the Divine attributes." (Zohar, Shemoth, Section 2).[12][13][14]

^Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible - Page 232 2000 "After serving Chedorlaomer for 12 years, the cities rebelled and Chedorlaomer retaliated, capturing both and taking their people, including Lot, as booty. Abraham with only 318 men surprised them in a night raid, freeing the captives"

^Aquila H. I. Lee From Messiah to preexistent son: Jesus' self-consciousness 2005 Page 96 - "Jewish Angelology in Second Temple Judaism: Although references to angels were found from the earliest stage of the OT, ... The new developments include the emergence of named angels, classes of heavenly beings, angelic hierarchy, "

^Howard Jacobson A commentary on Pseudo-Philo's Liber antiquitatum biblicarum 1996 p791 "This is common language about the angels. See e.g. Sanh. 94a, where the angel "Duma" is --------------- and Nidah 16b where the angel "Laila" is ------------. operantem invisibiliter. This presumably means, "works without being."

^The Zohar: Volume 3 1984 "To indicate the union which took place on that night between the Masculine and Feminine aspects in the Divine attributes, and also the same union which will take place in the future Redemption : "As in the days of thy coming out of ..."

^Catherine Swietlicki - Spanish Christian Cabala: the works of Luis de León, Santa Teresa ...1986 "For example, the Zohar says that sensual language must be used in order "to indicate the union which took place on that night between Masculine and Feminine aspects in the Divine attributes, and also the same union which will take place ."